General CAER News

CAER Director Rodney Andrews attended a follow-up session to the autumn Governor's Conference on the Environment titled "Conversation on Carbon Sequestration, Impacts in Kentucky of Carbon Sequestration." It was held in Frankfort on February 13th.

Rodney participated in a call-in show at Louisville's WFPL public radio station. He was joined by Tom Fitzgerald (Kentucky Resources Council), Bill Caylor (Kentucky Coal Association), and Paul Thompson (E.ON). The program's purpose was to explain what exactly is considered clean coal technology. For more information on the show, go to the station's web site. In other media news, he was interviewed by a reporter from Climate Wire, which is owned by Environment and Energy Publishing (E&E), an on-line environmental and energy policy and market news service.

Greg Copley took part in discussions on legal ramifications of sequestering carbon. Issues included: ownership, migration, and responsibility regarding underground storage. Other groups involved include the legal field, electric power industry, and state government.

Technical and policy advisors from CAER met with a company interested in transporting natural gas from shut in wells.

UK Interactions

Meetings and Special Presentations

The first meeting the new CAER-led consortium CMRG (Carbon Management Research Group) was held on February 19th. This is a first of its kind academic-industrial collaboration aimed at pilot- and demonstration-scale research of carbon management in Kentucky. The long term goal is to develop cost effective technologies for scrubbing CO2 from fossil fuel power plants. The participants included representatives from: E.ON US, AEP, KY Power CO., EKPC, EPRI, Duke Energy, Ky. Dept. of Energy, and CAER.

Rodney Andrews and carbon researcher Terry Rantell travelled to San Francisco to attend the TMS Conference, where Terry presented a paper.

Outside Interactions

University of Louisville professors Sunkara and Martinez met with Rodney to discuss the new Center for Renewable Energy Research and Environmental Stewardship on February 11th.

On January 26th, Greg met with Morgan County Judge Executive Tim Conley to discuss energy-related opportunities in Morgan County and CAER involvement.

Dr. Kelly Teller of the University of Tennessee made a presentation at UK on a collaborative biofuels initiative proposal.

On 2/26 Dr. Subodh Das visited the lab to discuss collaborations with his company, Phinix.

Greg participated in the Southern Growth Board Energy Forum in Pikeville and Morehead. He had several follow up discussions with potential CAER partners on projects. He also attended the Morehead-Rowan county Chamber of Commerce Lunch on January 8th.

Outreach

Greg met with Big Sandy Community and Technical College President Dr. George Edwards and Mr. Rusty Justice of Jigsaw, Inc. to discuss the potential CAER role in the Kentucky Coal Academy.

There was a meeting with Maysville Community College, attended by Rodney Andrews, Shiela Medina, and Greg Copley. The Fleming Mason RECC discussed the community college's efforts to educate power plant operator students, training for energy auditors and working on a program similar to the Bluegrass Partnership for a Green Community.

Wind, solar, biofuels and fossil fuels were on the agenda for the CAER's annual energy fair January 21st. Fourth-grade students from Breckinridge, Millcreek and Harrison elementary schools were treated to stage demonstrations and informal hands-on science learning at the individual exhibits.

Teaching and Instruction

Meriadeg Revaud (left) and Delphine Franchi of the ESIREM Materials Engineering Program in Dijon, France arrived in Kentucky for a several month research program. CAER has hosted students from ESIREM every year since 1999.

A new class called Energy Systems (CME599) is being taught in UK's Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering this spring by Drs. Rodney Andrews, Jim Neathery, and Jack Groppo. Among the topics being taught are: clean coal technologies, electricity transmission and distribution, natural gas generation, nuclear generation, renewable generation, carbon capture and sequestration, as well as economic considerations.

Staff/Student Accolades

A CAER researcher received the The Robert Stefanko Best Paper Award at the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration meeting in Denver, CO on February 24th. Datta Patil authored the paper with Kelvin Kiang, Maiming Fan and Daniel Tao. It was entitled "An innovative rotary triboelectrostatic separator for fly ash purification" and was presented in the Coal and Energy Division.